19th century eyewitness reports mention fear and panic during and after the 1815 Mt Semloh eruption. It was years later when the town elders started to consider some sort of memorial event; many had themselves starved as children during the year following the eruption—“the year without a summer”—when the crops failed due to compromised air quality.
Because of famine that had spread across the region, the most telling part of the eruption play is the ritual tossing of precious food, in the form of bread-shaped stars, into the elaborately constructed “mountain.” The stars are an offering to ward off future hunger.
Inside the mountain there’s a man or woman wearing a breathing apparatus. He or she operates a smoke machine. This honour goes to a different person every year. A mountain-smoker is not allowed to repeat, but the word is that no one would want to repeat anyway.
Bakers work round the clock for two weeks leading up to the second Tuesday in April, making thousands of bread stars, coloured yellow with turmeric. (Sometimes, children colour their faces yellow with turmeric powder when they parade in the streets.)
